Review of Imaginary Friends

Powerful alien beings trapped in a psychic field around our planet take the form of five children’s imaginary friends. One of these “friends,” a large bunny named Mr. Wumbles, learns that killing his fellow beings will give him the power to break free and achieve his fiendish ends. A five-year-old named Toby, a powerful psychic in his own right, wants to stop Mr. Wumbles’ so that he can continue to control the invisible bunny. And your super hero team was dumb enough to pick up the phone. Welcome to Imaginary Friends, a superhero adventure by Michael Satran.

Imaginary Friends is a whopping 202 page adventure with stats for both Champions and Savage Worlds supers. Like all of Michael’s adventures, Imaginary Friends is an exhaustive tome that presents not just a single path to get players from the first call from Doctor Carl Ingersoll to the final showdown with Mr. Wumbles and/or Toby, but an immersive amount of information about the world in which this game occurs. Maps, tactical positioning tips, plot seeds, and tips for handling players when they want to do something that’s not accounted for in the storyline (in other words, be players) are all part of Imaginary Friends. Even better, everything is presented so that it can be played in two different game systems.

Your money’s worth

The problem with some published adventures is that they just don’t feel “lived in.” Even for games that take place in well-established settings, adventures are published that just don’t feel well thought out. Not to belabor the point too much, but players have a nasty tendency of throwing curve balls at published adventures that either require the GM to ditch material or railroad their players back on to the “right path.”

Imaginary Friends doesn’t have this problem. The game definitely has a sequence of events that feels much more linear than earlier work from Michael like Foxbat for President or War of Worldcraft, but it also has a lot more callouts, sidebars, and general text dedicated to dealing with player actions outside the adventure.

A dark theme

Even though Imaginary Friends is full of detail, it still wouldn’t be very good if the adventure wasn’t fun to play. Fortunately, Imaginary Friends, delivers a story that while not unique, feels fresh due in no small part to the fact the game is a little dark. The main character is a five-year-old with Mirror Neuron Deficiency Disorder, which makes him a sociopath that actually revels in the pain of others. Add to that the fact his imaginary friend/villain is a human-sized bunny like we used to snuggle with at night and the game is already in dark territory.

The other imaginary friends are just as dark. Any reader who ever felt insecure as a child ought to be able to identify with at least one of the children in the game and his/her imaginary friend. The imaginary friends include Lisa, the popular girl who protects her not-so-popular real world human “sister,” Jack Bombad, the war hero who looks after his geeky human, and Polly Pooper, a disheveled, grimy, pooping parrot and her real friend, the very proper Angela Winehouse. In the hands of the right GM, these imaginary creatures can be light, but at some level, the interplay between the friends and the in-game problems of the children (which the players might have experienced at one time), hint at a dark undertone that runs throughout the book.

Whether this darkness is good or not is left up to each gaming group. However, it is something to be aware of before buying Imaginary Friends.

Beyond Champions

When I first opened Imaginary Friends, I was really excited to see the Savage Worlds stats in the book. I’ve not seen Michael do games outside of Champions, so it was nice to see him have the opportunity to branch out and let fans of other games enjoy his work.

Still, there’s a certain sense of trepidation when converting stats from one system to the other. Nuances from one game often don’t lend themselves to another and both Savage Worlds and Champions are different enough that converting between them had to have been a challenge. Still, after looking at the NPC write-ups throughout Imaginary Friends, I was duly impressed with the work put into making the NPCs in both systems feel like the same character.

One bad guy too many: SPIDER

If I have any criticism of the book, it would be the decision to include SPIDER. You may have noticed that at no time in the telling of the plot Imaginary Friends did I actually mention this secret organization, which it turns out, has been funding research of the imaginary friends. That’s because the game didn’t really need it. The meat of the game, and most of the action, revolves around the imaginary friends and their humans. Because of this, the inclusion of SPIDER feels unnecessary.

This is perhaps a bit nitpicky and as a GM, I would certainly have the ability to not include them if I want. Still, given that sixty pages are dedicated to them, part of me feels like I’m “supposed” to use them. Plus, they do help keep the action moving, but the game should largely be about the psychic beings and their conflict. Anything else feels like a distraction.

If you like Champions, check out Imaginary Friends

At the end of the day, too much information is probably okay, especially given how rich the main adventure path is. Yes, the game can be very dark, but that can be toned down by a GM or it can just be embraced by the group. Ultimately, the strength of the game rests in the details put into the game, the opportunity to punch a giant rabbit in the face and the chance for super heroes to rescue children. Based on that, the game is definitely worth a read.